A Blippar spokeswoman said the company "has not received or rejected an acquisition offer for Layar." She added that Layar's technology had been integrated into Blippar's wider augmented reality service for some time.

Layar was originally headquartered in Amsterdam, and was sold to Blippar in 2014 for an undisclosed amount.

The company was an early mover in augmented reality, launching an AR mobile browser, which used your phone's GPS, camera, and compass to give you information about your immediate surroundings. It also specialised in interactive magazine covers, where you pointed your phone at a magazine cover to see extra content on your screen.

A second source, a former senior Blippar employee, said Layar had been a "good business" with a "good audience" but that Blippar had "run that into the ground." The Amsterdam office closed last year, with some employees moving to London and the rest leaving.

A former employee previously told Business Insider that the number of active users for Blippar's app is close to 500,000. Blippar has refused to share its active user numbers.

There are several reasons that Mitra likely rejected Layar's cofounders. One is that it may be technically impossible to uncouple the two firms. A second is that, according to multiple sources, Layar has historically provided the bulk of Blippar's active users. Another is that Mitra remains convinced that Blippar can establish itself as a platform business.

It might help if Blippar white-labelled its platform, but the company appears reluctant to do this. For example, Blippar's Blippbuilder service lets you build augmented reality experiences yourself, but only through its own branded app. As one former senior executive put it: "Rish is very sure the Blippar brand is he most important thing."